Ritual

absorbed within the system and a greater voluntary control of
Prana is evident. With perfection of this practice the first sign of its
effect begins to appear. The body slowly becomes more relaxed,
calm, rhythmical and in harmony with inner elements; the face
'glows like the sun'. It is only when the adept has reached absolute
perfection that Prana will be felt rising through Sushumna (the
central channel of the subtle body) by arresting the flow of currents
in the solar and lunar channels on either side of Sushumna.
Pranayama is also used extensively to achieve meditative states
by concentrating on the inner movements of breath. A common
practice is to concentrate on or be aware of that fraction of a
moment between breathing in and breating out, that split second
when there is no breathing. Emphasis may be put on the turning or
'breath curves', the various regions of chakras through which
Prana ascends or, more simply, the sustained awareness of
breathing and not the time-gap between breathing in and out.
Concentration and meditation
In tantric ritual the yogic techniques of concentration and
meditation play a central role. All identifications, the interiorizations
to which tantrism attaches such importance, can be
attained by systematically focusing awareness on a stimulus. To
identify oneself with the divinity, to merge in the object of
contemplation, to have a unitive experience, presupposes several
categories or techniques of physiological and spiritual exercise
transforming our ordinary consciousness into a qualitatively
different realm of experience, in order to dispel terrestrial impulses
and open new mental doors to the awareness of union.
The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, in its second aphorism, describes
yoga as the 'inhibition of the modification of the mind'.
Concentration implies 'one-pointedness' (ekagrata) of the attention,
fixing the attention on a single stimulus in order to achieve
perfect autonomy over 'variously directed, discontinuous, diffused
attention' (sarvarthata). In the daily round of life our attention is
constantly diverted by a variety of external stimuli. Subconscious
forces disperse our consciousness and introduce a myriad of mental
associations, words, images, sensations; thus our minds are
continuously at the mercy of these inner forces. Meditation calls
for a complete censorship of this mental flux by focusing one's
awareness on a specific end or stimulus: 'As soon as the waves have
stopped and the lake has become quiet, we see its bottom. So with
Yoni, the female organ as a matrix
of generation. In tantric worship it
acquires special significance as it
represents the Ultimate Reality
manifesting itself in its female
principle, as Prakriti. Andhra
Pradesh, c. 19th century. Wood.
147